


Game On

by smokesprite



Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Supernatural Elements, Domestic Fluff, M/M, magic cough syrup, video game magic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-10
Updated: 2016-12-10
Packaged: 2018-09-07 17:02:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,181
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8808808
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/smokesprite/pseuds/smokesprite
Summary: "Andrew settled cross-legged next to an unconscious Neil and began to mess with the controller. He navigated to the game menu where a redheaded orc archer jumped on screen, waving its bow emphatically. Something about the orc pissed Andrew off." (Andrew starts messing with video game that has some rather interesting glitches.)





	

Andrew looked down on the technicolor mess that had once been Neil.

More puddle than man, Andrew nudged Neil unsympathetically with his foot. He’d been thinking pizza for dinner over whatever reruns of _Murder She Wrote_ were on. When Neil remained unresponsive to both Andrew and the curious pawing of Sir Fat Cat, Andrew reassessed.

Neil would’ve looked dead, were it not for his heavy, congested breathing. He’d been banned from practice by a worried Abby and so, of course, had found another way to destroy himself.

The x-box controller rested in Neil’s limp hand. Andrew bent over to pick it up and in the process saw a bottle of nighttime cough syrup half shoved under the couch.

Ah. So that was it.

Andrew settled cross-legged next to Neil’s unconscious form and began to mess with the controller. He navigated to the game menu where a fire-haired orc archer jumped on screen, waving its bow emphatically.

Something about the orc pissed Andrew off. Jamming the controls, he scrolled through the other characters. He thought he’d settled for a mace swinging dwarf, but when he clicked play it was the flaming orc that showed up.

Andrew immediately ran it off a nearby cliff.

The screen went dark.

The game reset.

The orc jabbed its bow at the screen, scolding Andrew until Andrew ran it off the cliff a second time.

The screen went dark.

The game reset.

The orc waved its fist menacingly. Instant death was no longer gratifying. Andrew decided it would be worthwhile to scope out the area. After a moment of studying the map icon in the corner, he headed for the mountain in the center.

Watching a CGI orc sprint through a forest was amusing until it started swinging its bow like an exy racket. Either programmers sucked or Neil had played this game for so long that the character had developed muscle memory.

Andrew ran the orc until the health bar blinked into the negatives.

The screen went dark.

The game reset.

The orc flipped him off.

Andrew took that to mean the last death hadn't been slow enough and spent the next five minutes gathering berries.

This time, the hike to the mountain was more methodical. Andrew was sure that whatever was up there would give this orc the doom it deserved. He found a small foot path and ignored the occasional spasm of the orc on screen; the game had a lot of glitches.

Andrew ran the orc ragged, stopping when the health bar started blinking to eat a handful of berries. It was therapeutic until a raging forest fire blocked their path. Andrew, using the finest of logic, decided that bright orange hair must mean the orc was magically fire-proof.

He lost half of his health bar, but he wasn’t wrong. The orc’s loincloth smoldered. The orc kept stopping to try and put it out, and Andrew used the opportunity to learn the controls well enough to counteract whatever semblance of free will the programmers had given it.

Seeing the same tree vectors was getting old, Andrew thought. The orc evidently thought the same. In a moment where Andrew let his guard down, hypnotized by flashing shades of green, the orc reached into its quiver for a red arrow.

The orc shot it right into the camera. Like an idiot, Andrew flinched.

Andrew ran the orc down the hill until it fell into a ravine.

The screen went dark.

The game reset.

There was a rundown temple at the top of the mountain. The orc walked slower and slower until the ground didn’t move at all beneath the feet. It was like the orc was up against an invisible wall.

It took another shot at the screen and Andrew looked at the prone body next to him. Freaky glitches and asshole programmers could account for how Neil-like the orc was, but it didn’t stop an odd sense of...what, what was this?

How many lives did he have left?

The orc interrupted his introspection by jabbing his bow at one of the nearby stones. Andrew tried moving the orc toward the temple unsuccessfully. The camera, however, did move, and the stone glinted. Andrew acquiesced.

The orc drew an ax from between two stones.

“These assholes built the cheats into the game?” Andrew asked disbelievingly. He sent the orc into the temple with no reservations.

It was dark, and Andrew wondered if he’d died again. A streak of fire a moment later suggested otherwise. Stonework was briefly illuminated, and the shadow of something huge loomed over the orc.

Ignoring how that would’ve worked, physics considered, Andrew dodged. Another fireball hurtled toward them and instead of dodging like Andrew wanted, the orc used a striker move to send it flying back into the darkness. Annoyed by the disconnect between the controls and the screen, Andrew button smashed. There was some kind of delay.

A low roaring from the speakers told Andrew the orc had hit its mark.

All at once, the orc lurched into the darkness and Andrew was in control once again. He made the orc eat berries. When the orc seemed sufficiently antsy, having gone between finishing a meal and dodging flaming projectiles for a good chunk of time, Andrew drove the orc deeper into the darkness.

He discovered that when the health bar was at full strength, the orc’s hair glowed. By this light, they found a staircase as they scaled along the wall. Up and up they went until there was a break in the stairs that the orc almost fell through. They barely made the jump over.

Fire balls continued to come, and though it would’ve been smarter to dodge, the orc kept sneaking in that damn exy move.

They came to a flat expanse.

The snout of a towering dragon appeared right before the orc got flame blasted. Despite magical fire-resistance, Andrew took a bad hit.

The orc tried a move right out of the goalie book and Andrew almost let it die for that. Then, he took a deep breath. It took trial and error, but Andrew figured out how to catch and aim.

They’d have to finish this quickly.

He got the dragon in the eye. It shrieked and Andrew followed with a jump, cleaving his ax into the dragon’s skull. The dragon fell and as the orc fell with it, he got the option to save the game.

 _No_ he clicked and turned it off.

The next morning found Neil slumped over the counter, spinning the cough syrup’s plastic cup cap like a top.

Neil looked at Andrew, his face unusually guarded.

“How was practice?” he asked.

“Fine,” Andrew said. “How was your video game?”

Neil’s look got stranger. “I got pretty far. Did you turn it off?”

“Yeah.”

Neil spun the cap. “I started hallucinating. It was like I was in the game. I figured it was the cough syrup, that I was just playing tripped out, but I checked and I’m nowhere near the progress point I should be.”

“Must’ve forgotten to save.”

“Must have.” 


End file.
